10/9/2010 - 10/10/2010 -- Family Reunion
We left early Saturday morning...it was about a 6 hour drive...we went from TN through AR through MO to IL...four states in one day, whew!
We got to Red Bud, IL around 12 and had a little trouble finding the park where the reunion was...but we did find it. We parked, and Chris' dad walked over to the picnic table and before he could ask if it was the right place, the lady at the table said "Richard?" and nearly dropped the bowl she was holding. So, yeah, we were in the right place.
Kraig loved the playground...
The park they use has a pavilion with several picnic tables, an adjoining enclosed playground, adjacent restrooms, and a large field behind it. Oh and a sandbox. It was a great set up. Kraig loved the playground....and he did really well with all the new people. I was quite impressed. They had brought a pinata for the children...
We ate lunch....it was potluck, and I have many recipes to gather. :) Then there was an impromtu family history gathering session....another family member there has been working on the family lines, and had brought much of her stuff with her to confirm and gather additional information. I had brought the minimal information we have...and it grew by leaps and bounds. It was awesome. She had pictures as well, which she has agreed to send me. Sweet!
7 of the 11 brothers and sisters...2 are deceased, and the others were unable to make it.
After the reunion, we went to get a hotel in Waterloo. As we were checking in, the receptionist asked which (insert my last name here) we were. It was a new experience for me...most people can't say our name let alone have heard of it before. She had gone to school with cousins, apparently. We went to get something to eat, and when we got back, the "message waiting" light was blinking on the phone. The message was for my father in law....apparently his sisters had tracked us down. There are few hotels in Waterloo...so it was a short search. Plans were made to meet up with two of his sisters to go to Fults, IL, which is outside of Waterloo, to visit the family cemetary and where they grew up.
Sunday morning, we got up and had a continental breakfast at the hotel, then went exploring Waterloo a bit. It was awesome. It is such a small town in so many ways...one of the most unique things I saw were these wooden shack things at the corners of the streets. I thought they were telephone booths, but after seeing one with a yellow police vest in it, I found out that they are crossing guard booths. The orange color they were painted, that I thought was for Halloween, is actually the school colors. Unfortunately, by the time this came up in conversation, we didn't see any more and I didn't get any pictures.
After Waterloo, we met Kathy and Pearl, my father in law's sisters, and followed them to the family cemetary. I took pictures of the gravesites and took notes of relationships. I love stuff like that....genealogy is one of my hobbies, so this was absolutely spellbinding to me.
Looks like we are driving across an open field.....
But it WAS a paved road...
(It says "God's finger touched him and he slept") Pearl and I etched the dirt out with a couple of sticks to figure out what it said. It is written on the headstone of an infant son of their grandparents, so my husband's great grandparents.
My husband's grandparents....
The cemetary is on a hill....Fults the town (such as it is) sits at the bottom of the hill...
We drove to the city of Fults, which is a very small town. It was already a small town, but it sits right next to the Mississippi River and was wiped out by flood in 1991. The church they used to attend is still standing...it is no longer used for regular services, but someone keeps up the garden and they use it for the annual Christmas service and for weddings and other special occasions.
The stained glass is beautiful...
Entrance to the restroom....from outside the church building....
The garden...
I just found this kind of amusing....
You don't get much more small town than this.... :)
After that, we went to the homestead...the original house is gone, but some of the original buildings are still there and some of the old farm equipment. One of their brothers' still lives there. There is a dried up pond out back. Oh, and the original cistern is still there, though obviously not in use. I had to ask what a cistern was....do you know????
This is the original homestead....the house sat to the left of the barn.
(It's a well.)
The "new" (old) house that sits on the property now....
Then we began the drive home...it is such beautiful country. We stopped at the visitor's center in Chester, IL, which sits on IL side of the Mississippi River...Missouri is on the other side of the bridge.
Look how fast that water is moving...
hmmm...so which way would you go????
Chester is the home of Popeye...there is a huge bronze statue of Popeye outside of the visitors center.
There is a deck to look out at the river..as we turned to leave, a train was coming...so of course we had to turn and watch it go by.
We stopped at Alice's (the aunt that lives in Blytheville, AR) house on the way home....she had her family come over and fixed dinner for all of us. It was nice to sit and visit and Kraig had a good time.
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